


little league

by orphan_account



Category: ENHYPEN (Band), TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Gen, High School AU, M/M, Mutual Pining, beomjun partners in crime, curse of the wandering tense, everything ends up ok, fluff!, gender theft, lots n lots of unrequited love, ni-ki just wants some peace n quiet, soccer team au, yeonjun is everyone’s gay cousin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29669910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: yeonjun, facing his senior year, is trying to bring back his soccer teams dignity. (hint: it’s going to be a lot harder than he thought.)
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu & Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	1. yeonjun's terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad day

“heads!” someone shrieks, and yeonjun is immediately nailed in the back of the head with a soccer ball. _ah, yes,_ he remembered bitterly, _tryout day_. the freshman at fault runs up to him and cowers, securing the ball under one arm. 

“i’m really sorry,” he bows, “i didn’t mean to hit you.” 

“it’s fine,” yeonjun sighed. the freshman scampered over to a cluster of new kids, huddled together in a little clutch with their backs to everyone. yeonjun snorted and went back to setting out practice cones. 

“how’s everything going over here?” soobin trotted up to him with a visor, polo shirt, and whistle hanging from his mouth: the whole coach shebang. he even brought a clipboard. “no problems?” 

“i’m setting out cones, soob, nothing has gone wrong so far,” yeonjun deadpanned, “and can’t you just make hyuka do this?” he looked down at the cones, “i think i might be overqualified.” 

“hyukas going to the gym to ask the volleyball team to ask for some spare balls. we don’t actually have any more except for that one,” soobin points to a woefully deflated, mud-splattered soccer ball next to the goalpost, “if you wanna go with him to try convincing coach lee, go for it. he was quaking in his boots.” 

“alright, cowboy.” yeonjun dropped the pile of colorful dribble cones and jogged across the field to the retreating figure of huening kai. the soccer field had been pushed to the outskirts of school property to make room for the girls field hockey team (who were almost as terrifying as the volleyball team), so it was a long walk to the school. 

“hey,” he panted, catching up with the freshman. 

“oh, are you coming with me?” yeonjun nodded.

“great! can you please talk to coach lee for me? like, do _all_ of the talking?” 

“what?” yeonjun asked, incredulous, “no, i’m just coming with you to get soobin off my case.” 

kai groaned and threw his head back, shoving his hands in his pockets. “this is unbelievably homophobic.” yeonjun squinted at him in confusion for a moment before shrugging. maybe this was just another Hyuka Thing. every now and then the freshman would adopt a new catchphrase and only stop using it when the rest of the team got annoyed enough to tell him to shut up. 

“just get in there and ask. i’ll just stand there and look menacing for you.” yeonjun patted him on the back and opened the doors to the main gym. “you first.” 

the volleyball team all turned to face them as soon as they walked in, catching the balls they’d been tossing back and forth and falling completely silent. coach lee poked her head out of the supply room and stalked out. 

“hey, boys. what are you in for now?” she narrowed her eyes behind her sports sunglasses. they reflected a distorted version of kai’s terrified face back at them. yeonjun dimly wondered why she wore them indoors. now that he thought about it, he’d never seen her without them on. maybe she had a medusa situation? he subtly inched over to get behind kai to avoid her stare, shrinking under the gaze of the thirty-something girls on the volleyball team.

“hey, uhm, we’re from the varsity soccer team,” kai started, fidgeting, “and we were wondering if we could borrow like, a few balls? from the supply closet?” 

“volleyballs?” coach lee snapped. one of the seniors on the team giggled. 

“erm, yeah.” 

“stay,” she commanded, and turned to stomp back into the supply room. the volleyball team still hadn’t moved since they’d come in. 

“here. run along,” coach lee tossed a jersey bag full of old volleyballs their way. kai bowed and bolted for the door, abandoning yeonjun with the bag to tug along behind him. 

“thank you,” yeonjun bowed, feeling humiliated, and shuffled out, letting the doors slam behind him.

“fuck the volleyball team!” hyuka nearly shouted once the doors were closed and they were almost out of earshot. yeonjun slapped his hand over his mouth, turning around to watch the gym doors in case they opened again and coach lee came out to kill them. 

“dude, you can’t just say that-- did you _lick_ me?” yeonjun snatched his hand back and wiped it on hyuka’s shirt. 

“they suck! they’re all mean. all of them.” 

“everyone and their mom knows that,” yeonjun frowned and checked his phone, “and tryouts started a few minutes ago, come on.” he started jogging, tossing the jersey bag full of volleyballs over his shoulder. at least they weren’t basketballs-- they’d exhausted all other options before trying volleyballs, and none of their experiments had gone well. 

“how many do you think are gonna make it?” kai asked.

“i’m betting five. the rest are going to junior varsity,” yeonjun predicted. he’d been around long enough to make educated guesses about which kids made it and which didn’t. 

they crested the hill to overlook the muddy field. soobin had obviously just told the new kids to jog around the field to stall until yeonjun and kai had come back.

soobin’s face lit up when he saw them approaching. “you got ‘em! great,” he clapped, “now we can get started.” he blew the whistle and the newbies started heading over, looking a bit less enthusiastic than they had earlier. yeonjun flopped down into the plastic lawn chair they kept and eyed them one by one, while kai bounced on the balls of his feet and waved. 

“okay, so let's do some icebreakers, first, just to get to know everyone.” soobin checked his clipboard and the huddle gave a collective groan. 

/// 

after coming up with about four adjectives to describe himself that started with the letter ‘y’ because of soobin’s dumb icebreakers, yeonjun was released to actually start evaluations. 

“do you know when the new coach is supposed to show?” kai popped into yeonjun’s peripheral vision as he watched the kids shoot penalties.

“nope. aren’t you supposed to be watching them?” he glanced over to hyuka’s designated group of freshman, who seemed to be playing tag. 

“i did, and they all suck,” kai reported, completely serious. 

“bring them over. we’ve gotta see if they have any potential.” 

“‘kay,” kai pouted, “come here!” he screamed, and the freshmen hurried over together. yeonjun crossed his arms. they all looked pretty lanky and awkward besides two or three. 

“soob!” yeonjun called. soobin’s head popped up from where he’d been surrounded by his own gaggle of kids, “i’m calling a huddle.” 

“so are any of you good?” hyuka asked, looking around. the freshman just looked at each other, obviously unsure of how to answer. soobin brought his kids over in a line like the perfect babysitter he was. 

“okay, first of all, are any of you trying out for goalie?” the kids gave a collective shake of the head, like they had a hive mind. “are any of you _capable_ of being a goalie?” yeonjun changed his wording. one kid in back hesitantly raised his hand. “okay, cool. get in goal.” 

he went through all positions until the kids were all sorted into separate lines. he still hadn’t remembered anyone’s name but two; the tentative goalie who was currently picking a bouquet of daisies next to the goalpost-- jake-- and a centre defender who _would not shut up_ \-- sunoo. soobin managed to dig through the maintenance shed and find about a trillion spiders, as well as the crate full of stained pinnies.

“start playing,” yeonjun sat back down in the lawn chair and observed. it took approximately ten seconds for it to become clear that one team was far better than the other. hyuka gaped, soobin muttered something under his breath, and yeonjun watched with a passive expression before taking soobins whistle from around his neck and blowing it, calling the scrimmage off. “sit.” 

the freshmen complied. yeonjun closely inspected them. “are you wearing _crocs_?” he narrowed his eyes at one, a small boy wearing fuzzy socks and muddy, grass stained crocs. the kid looked up at him with big eyes and nodded. “y’know what? doesn’t matter. go stand next to soobin. you’re in the good pile.” yeonjun pointed, and the boy bounced over, ecstatic.  
“you, you, you,” he pointed to a couple more kids, including jake (he hadn’t even had to do anything as goalie, but yeonjun Had a Feeling), and left the rest to soobin and kai’s jurisdiction. the good pile-- the kids yeonjun had chosen-- were talking quietly amongst themselves. the kid with the crocs appeared to be making a flower crown out of the daisies jake had picked earlier. 

they already seemed to be pretty sociable, getting along well. soobin and kai only chose three more kids, apologizing profusely as they turned the others away. 

“name, position, and grade, please?” soobin poised his pen over the clipboard, “from right to left.”

“jay, mid, sophomore.” a kid in nike blazers-- yeonjun glared at them, wondering why they made such poor footwear choices for tryouts-- mumbled. 

“sunoo, left defense, freshman!” sunoo said enthusiastically.

“ni-ki, centre defense, freshman,” another piped up. yeonjun noted that the kid probably had potential to move up to mid at some point. 

“sunghoon, right defense, sophomore.” 

“heeseung, mid, sophomore.” 

“jungwon! mid! sophomore!” one of the kids said, obviously taking this way too seriously. yeonjun wrinkled his nose. 

“beomgyu, forward, sophomore,” the crocs kid said, trying to tie off the flower crown, pitifully focused. 

“taehyun, defense, sophomore.” 

“great! nice to meet you,” soobin grinned, glaring at yeonjun and kai to say the same.

“nice to meet you,” kai intoned. yeonjun slouched further into the lawn chair and nodded at them. 

“so _anyway_ , practices are every other day from 3:00 to 5:00. weekend practices are on saturday mornings at eight to ten,” soobin had to raise his voice over the resulting groans, “and if you miss them, you have to call the night before to let us know. put your phone numbers and preferred name on the clipboard so we can contact you, then you’re free to go.” there was an immediate clamor to get to the clipboard first, smaller kids being pushed to the back of the line. 

yeonjun was still surprised that so many sophomores had shown up. usually it was just lanky, greasy freshmen boys who just wanted to be able to tell people they played a sport. honestly, that was the sole reason the school had lost all faith in the soccer program. yeonjun had made it his personal goal when he joined to try gaining some respect and dignity for the team. it obviously hadn’t gone as planned, and, if anything, the team had even less respect than they’d started off with. 

“hyuka, can you please go collect the dribble cones?” soobin asked, already turning back to put the pinnies back into the maintenance shed. yeonjun tilted his head back and let the brief sunlight filtering through the clouds to warm his face. a shadow immediately fell over him, and he stared at the figure above him. 

“is there anything i can do to help pack up?” ni-ki asked, staring impassively down at him. yeonjun started to shake his head, but got an idea. 

“yeah,” he smiled, “could you please return the volleyballs to the main gym on your way out?”


	2. nakamoto joins the team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wahh i'm back kinda early !!! i hope u all enjoy this chapter ;; it's a bit shorter than the first one :<

“choi… it’s a financial risk for the school to keep the soccer team running, and you know i don’t like taking risks,” vice principal yang shook her head, “to be honest, i’ve been considering just shutting the soccer program down.” yeonjun glanced out of the office window, looking down at the school parking lot.

“it’s kinda too late for that,” huening kai fiddled with a jar of pushpins in the desk chair next to him, “we had tryouts yesterday after school and we’ve kinda got a-- a team now.” he used the word ‘team’ liberally. what they had on their hands was far from it.

“was this approved?” vice principal yang asked, turning to her computer and typing furiously. yeonjun’s heart went out to whoever was on the receiving end of the email in progress. 

“yes…?” 

“by whom?” kai hesitated, afraid to give up the answer. yeonjun stayed completely lax in the office chair he was flopped onto, one leg tossed over the wooden arm. “huening kai. who gave you permission to hold tryouts?” 

“mr. nakamoto.” kai forced out. 

“the new librarians intern?” kai just nodded. 

“this is out of hand. too far to reign back in, i suppose,” she sighed, “so you can keep your team on a conditional basis.” hyuka pumped his fist and yeonjun quickly batted it out of the air. 

“what are the… conditions?” he ventured. 

“nakamoto will be your new coach, and you should make it to at least district finals this season. then, and _only then_ ,” she emphasized, staring them down over the rim of her glasses, “will i allow the soccer program to continue. now, you’d better go get nakamoto from the library and count your lucky stars he agrees to coaching you fiends.”

“thank you,” kai bowed, already halfway out the door. yeonjun noted that he was developing a habit of leaving yeonjun behind. 

“thanks,” he intoned, grabbing an almond joy from the little jar of candies on her desk. he didn’t even really like them; he tucked it into his pocket for later on his way out. 

“what do we do now?” kai whisper-screamed as soon as they were out of earshot, clasping his hands over his head in anguish. 

“go to the library and grovel.” 

\--------

“oh, hey, guys! glad you stopped by.” mr. nakamoto kicked his feet up on his desk and sipped his gatorade. 

his office smelled suffocatingly like cigarettes and hot pockets, the scent hitting them like a wave as soon as they stepped inside. worn vintage marvel comics and mangas were piled on the shelves along with hundreds of unsorted books, and the librarian's intern sat in the middle of it all, cat pictures pulled up on the school computer in front of him. he was in a horrific brown cardigan layered over a cutoff tee and jeans, and his overgrown hair was tied up into a half ponytail. “how did tryouts go yesterday?” 

“fine.” 

“awful.” 

yeonjun and kai answered at the same time, then turned to glare at each other. 

“you first,” nakamoto graciously lifted his mug towards yeonjun.

“we need you to coach the team,” yeonjun admitted through gritted teeth, “or else yang is cutting the program.” 

“alright.” mr. nakamoto shrugged agreeably. 

“really?” kai looked up from where he was gushing over an old edition of the amazing spiderman.

“like, now? cause we need a coach now,” yeonjun confirmed, stepping back into the doorway of the office if only to get fresh air that didn’t smell like a quarterlife crisis. 

“sure. i’m willing to help you two out. sit and stay a while, i’m looking for a new cat, so gimme a few more minutes.” the intern turned back to the desktop and scrolled through dozens of identical black cats for five minutes and thirty six seconds (yeonjun was watching the clock on the wall) before seemingly settling on one. 

“what do you think? her names bibi!” he tilted the screen to show them an elderly cat with a grayed snout and awful cataracts. 

“she’s cute.” kai lied through his teeth.

“i think she’s the one,” nakamoto sighed happily and stood from his desk, stretching his back and groaning at the resulting pops. 

“can we get going now? we left all the kids with soob,” yeonjun asked, getting up from the floor and inching towards the door again. 

“only if you help me with something first. do either of you happen to know the dewey decimal system? cause i sure don’t,” mr. nakamoto clapped his hands, “and i’ve gotta put all these back on the shelves before the end of the day.” 

“aren’t all librarians meant to have it memorized?”

“i might’ve lied on my resume, okay? people do it all the time, plus, sicheng hasn’t caught on yet. i just spout random numbers whenever he asks me anything,” nakamoto confessed, “it’s gotten me this far. just shelve them. the faster you shelve them the faster we can get out of here.” 

yeonjun pushed the book cart into the library and started shelving as quickly as he could. hyuka ran from one end of the library to the other with armfuls of paperbacks, and mr. nakamoto had started skimming a children's book about elephants, appearing to be very invested. 

kai ended up doing most of the work while yeonjun spent most of his time telling mr. nakamoto to stop reading picture books and just _shelve them, for gods sake_. 

“kay, that’s all of ‘em. let’s go save your team,” nakamoto patted his thighs to call huening kai over like he was a puppy. yeonjun led the way out, somewhat eager to get back, and wrinkled his nose when mr. nakamoto lit a cigarette as soon as they were out of sight from the school. 

“mr. nakamoto, is that allowed?” kai asked, trying to keep up. 

“haven’t gotten sued or anything for it yet.” 

“that’s a good bare minimum, i guess.” 

“you don’t have to call me mr. nakamoto anymore, either. just call me nakamoto, or coach, or something. i don’t really care.” mr. nakamoto paused on the path to the fields to braid his hair into a tiny little bun. the red dye from it had started to fade, leaving his roots starkly exposed. 

yeonjun found it unfair that the school board let him dye his hair firetruck red but made the students stick to neutral colors. they crested the ridge to the soccer field, which had been reduced to a mudflat thanks to the rain earlier in the day. half of the team was trying to run laps under soobin’s orders while the other half were just huddled over by the shed. nakamoto paused for a few more seconds to take it all in. his cigarette had long since gone out, but it still dangled from his lips. 

“well,” he sighed, “let’s get started.” 

\---------

“i’m gonna be real honest here, kid,” nakamoto pulled yeonjun aside by the elbow to the sideline, about ten feet away from where the rest of the team stood, “your team is no good.” 

yeonjun nodded in agreement. the rest of the team also nodded in agreement.

“it’ll take a miracle worker to fix this, but luckily, you’ve got one.” nakamoto pointed to himself, jabbing his finger into his chest, “moi.” he turned back to the team and spit his cigarette butt into the mud, pushing it in with his toe. 

“all of you are fine on your own. unfortunately, you don’t have any social skills,” he started, “so get to know each other. hang out together, get to know your position partners better, stuff like that. now, someone give me a ball.” he held out his hand, and a single mud-splattered volleyball was tossed into it. nakamoto glanced down at it in disappointment. his glasses were beginning to fog up. 

“it’s worse than i thought.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls leave comments n kudos if u enjoyed !! they rlly help motivate me since they let me know ppl r enjoying it :D

**Author's Note:**

> hi ! if u enjoyed, pls leave kudos or a comment (they’re rlly appreciated ><) the next chapter is on its way !


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